Hmmm .....

I have been working (on-and-off) on usb storage driver pack for windows 95B/C ... It is currently only half complete and has quite a bit more work to get it completed. Nevertheless, it is a working pack.

I am requesting windows 95 testers who wishes to try out this pack to provide feedback and help me improve it. The drivers itself was collected from the web and tested for suitability & compatibility. The current driver files has been modified to point to USBSTOR in registry.









I am attaching the systray usb removal utility on the next thread for testing on win9x platform. It is intended for windows 95 but has been tested to work on all win9x system. On windows 95, specific device class ID (usb,diskdrive,cdrom) needs to be added to the registry for it to work (included with the utility). Please report any issues with it.

Rgds


USBSTR95.EXE : Usb storage driver pack for windows 95 (Beta 1)
Click to view attachment

Here's the systray usb storage removal utility works on all Windows 9X... Please make some test runs and report any issues ...

*Note: For windows 95, double-click on the .reg file to add Device Class GUID

Rgds

* Updates 26-DEC-2007 *
- Major changes to source code to primarily use cfgmgr32 routines.
- Workaround an issue of intermittent setupapi failure on win95. It does not occur on win98 and above.
- Workaround an issue with excessive memory usage. Only occurs on win95 due to how setupapi is managed by windows.

* Updates 5-JAN-2008 *
- Bugfix: library unload sequence corrected.
- Excessive memory usage solved.

EJECTUSB.RAR (0103-for historical record - DO NOT USE)
Click to view attachment

EJECTUSB.RAR (0108-for historical record - stable with dll unload bug)
Click to view attachment

EJECTUSB.RAR (0108b - latest stable with bugfix)
Click to view attachment

Nice! I need to know, though: what do I do if this doesn't go well? What files/reg keys to delete/modify?

Uploaded here:
http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#USD

* Unofficial Windows 95B/95C OSR 2.x USB Storage Driver Pack (USBSTR95) Beta 1:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Usb-Storage-Driver-pack-t109521.html
USBSTR95 [196 KB, free, English]:
http://www.mdgx.com/spx/USBSTR95.EXE

Keep up the good work.

Hmmm .....



Where it is placed & how to remove:
1. The driver pack will add usbstor.inf and patched nodriver.inf to the INF directory.
2. Storage drivers will be copied to OPTIONS\CABS directory.
3. The device removal utility will be placed into SYSTEM directory and a startup ejectusb link will be placed into HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
4. Device class ID will be added to the registry.

5. To remove from using the drivers again, delete usbstor.inf from the INF directory.
6. Remove ejectusb startup link as in #3.
7. To remove usbstor driver usage comletely, remove all references to the required VID/PID under USB and all in USBSTOR in the HKLM\ENUM\USB registry section. Do not remove ROOT_HUB entries. Those are for usb root hubs.
8. Remove all driver files as listed in the _usbtor.inf

The eject/removal utility does not write anything to the registry. It is a beta version systray utility with a close/exit option. It will only show usb devices if it is active, else the list is empty.


Rgds

I did some testing.

I installed with the batch file. When I plugged in the HDD, it still used the SanDisk drivers, so I thought it didn't help. But then, while uninstalling the drivers, I also deleted the key for "USB Mass Storage Port". So I tried again, and this time I could specifiy the driver path. I just pointed at the Program Files directory I had let the extractor put it at before.

Weirdly enough it asked me to reboot after identifying it as "USB Mass Storage Interface". After reboot there were two entries for it: the previous one and "USB Mass Storage Device". But it still didn't work. Unplugged, plugged it back in, now only "USB Mass Storage Device" appeared. I took a look at the HDD with my brother's laptop, and it's an NTFS drive. Ack.

I tried my USB stick, but it got identified as "USB Mass Storage Port", and no drive appeared in My Computer. Looking at Control Panel > System I saw it had a problem. I don't remember exactly what I did at this point. I think I deleted the entry in the register, and tried again, and asked me to reboot this time. I said No and saw that the device had a problem. I figured that it was because I hadn't rebooted yet. Rebooted, still no drive, still a problem.

At this point I uninstalled the whole package and pointed Windows again at the drivers I got from Nathan Lineback. My USB stick works fine again.

Hmmm .....

Thank you for your effort and feedback ... I have made a quick check and found that the "USB Mass Storage Port" is a reference to the Cruzer drivers from Nathan's pack. That would mean traces of the previous drivers are still being used by windows.

If you can/willing to give it another shot, here's what you can do. Remove all references to the cruzer drivers by deleting all refences to SND95*.inf in windows\inf\others. Search and remove all instances of USBIMW95.sys and USBSTW95.pdr. Remove instances of the usb sticks from the registry or hardware control panel. Reboot first to clear any loaded driver for the usb devices. Then try out the usb storage drivers.

If windows requires a reboot after detection then it can mean one of two below :

1. Driver conflict/mismatch.
2. Device using unsupported/specific protocol (CB/CBI/Authentication etc etc).
(* I'm still looking for suitable drivers for these protocols.)

I have also made changes to the ejectusb utility above. Please use the updated version instead.

Rgds

MSFN forum topic link outdated and no longer working. Use this for now:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Usb-Storage-Driv...95-t109521.html

I'll give the USB Storage driver pack for Win95 OSR2.x a test drive on my cousin's emachine computer this week since it has two usb ports.

Corrected URL in all posts of this topic:

* Unofficial Windows 95B/95C OSR 2.x USB Storage Driver Pack (USBSTR95) Beta 1 adds native USB support for most internal + external USB devices:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Usb-Storage-Driver-pack-t109521.html
USBSTR95 [196 KB, free, English]:
http://www.mdgx.com/spx/USBSTR95.EXE

FYI:
All MSFN forum URLs must have index.php now, otherwise they don't work anymore.
Example:
- old, non-working URL:
www.msfn.org/board/?showtopic=109521
- new, working URL:
www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=109521

HTH

I think you are much better off using Nathan's USB Storage drivers for Win95 and ditching PassingBy's USB Storage driver pack, BenoitRen. I've tried using PassingBy's USBSTR95 pack with a Sony Microvault 4GB USB Flash drive I bought back in late July and the drivers won't recognize it. So I remove them and used Nathan's usb storage drivers and those drivers worked with the Sony Microvault 4Gb USB Flash stick. Still, the IOMagic datastation device [which is a multi-card reader usb device] doesn't work with either Nathan's USB Flash driver or PassingBy's USB Storage driver pack. no big loss though.

So I now give PassingBy's Win95 USB Storage Driver pack a grade of D+. NO uninstall option to remove those drivers is another reason why I gave it a low grade.